Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,065 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Rice and Tomato Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the cold boiled rice on ice until very cold.
Scoop out the insides of the large ripe tomatoes.
Make the filling
Mix equal parts of the tomato pulp and cold rice, then add 2 teaspoons of grated Parmesan cheese.
Mix thoroughly, season with coarse sea salt and paprika.
Fill the hollowed tomatoes with the mixture.
Chill and serve
Chill on ice for an hour.
Serve with a generous spoonful of mayonnaise on top of each tomato.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,490 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together879 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled rice
- Provides the bulk of the filling and a firm, separate texture.
- Large ripe tomatoes
- Serve as the hollow shell and add moisture and fresh tomato flavour.
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the rice filling.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds richness and fat to the finished tomatoes.
The step that matters
Chill the rice until very cold. Cold rice stays firm and separate when mixed with the tomato pulp. Warm rice would turn soft and sticky and could make the filling wet and warm.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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